Forgotten Memories
by Kristi1
Summary: Nightwalker fic: Shido risks it all to obtain some long forgotten memories, but will the past doom his future with Riho? Shido/Riho *COMPLETE*
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own "Nightwalker" or any of the characters that are portrayed within this story. I only wish that that lavender haired vampire Shido belonged to me.  
  
  
  
The heavy, oppressive air that usually accompanies a major thunderstorm hung heavy in the air. As if the emphasize the point, nature let loose a bright flash of light. He instinctively began to count the seconds...  
  
"1...2...3..."  
  
And then a rumble of thunder shook the desk at which he sat. The vampire got up from the desk and turned towards the window. Looking out, he raised a finger to the pane of glass and traced the water that had begun to fall from the sky. Suddenly, he heard a flurry of footsteps racing up the stairs and Shido bit back to smile. Ah, Riho...  
  
"Mr. Shido, Mr. Shido," Riho cried and she flung the door of the office open and burst into the room.  
  
"Yes, Riho," Shido said without turning around.  
  
"There's such a storm coming our way. It's like I can feel it all around me. I can feel the electricity in the air. The thunder's blasts move right through me. I can hear the drops of water as they hit the pavement. Is this part of my vampire senses Mr. Shido?"  
  
"Yes," Shido answered and turned to face his young protegee. "You will begin to notice that all of your senses will deepen and magnify to an acute degree. You will have to, in some degree, learn to block some of them out at times, and focus in on others."  
  
"That sounds difficult," Riho complained with a defeated look about her. She shook her head from side to side, causing her auburn ponytail to sway gently down her back.  
  
"I will help you," Shido announced. Smiling, he moved around the desk and put his arm around her small shoulders and hugged her to him. The faint smell of lavender wafted up to him and he felt a peculiar feeling in the pit of his stomach. An ache of sorts, but a pleasant one at that. Then she looked up at him. Big brown eyes gazed up into green ones. The ache was back, intensified by hundredfold. He had been noticing it more and more frequently, usually when Riho was around.  
  
"Since it is so dark and dreary out, I'll put some coffee on," Riho said. She gently pulled away from Shido and walked into the kitchen.  
  
Just as Shido was about to reclaim his seat at his desk, the office door opened and Yayoi entered.  
  
"Good evening Shido," Yayoi greeted as she strolled into the room and took a seat on one of the couches that decorated the office. Guni revealed herself from within Yayoi's hair and shook the rain off of her wings.  
  
"Yow!!! That's some storm!" she proclaimed and then fluttered over to land on Shido's shoulder.  
  
Shido stared at Yayoi until she met his gaze.  
  
"Well?" he asked.  
  
"Well what?" she replied.  
  
"Did you find anything out about that Nightbreed?" Shido persisted.  
  
"And which Nightbreed would you be referring to?" Yayoi faked ignorance.  
  
"You might as well tell him Yayoi," Guni interjected.  
  
"I do have ways of making people talk, you know," Shido drawled in a sexy voice.  
  
"I just bet you do," Yayoi quipped sarcastically. "Refresh my memory. Which Nightbreed are you so interested in knowing about?"  
  
Shido shook his head in assent.  
  
"Ah yes, the refreshing memory kind."  
  
Just then Riho walked in from the kitchen carrying a tray with two steaming cups of coffee on it.  
  
"I heard you come in Yayoi and so I prepared a cup for you as well," she said.  
  
"Why thank you Riho," Yayoi utterred as she gratefully took the cup from the tray while Riho delivered the other cup to Shido who was leaning against his desk still staring intently at Yayoi.  
  
"What were you two talking about anyways? A new case?" Riho asked as she picked up on the charged atmosphere in the room between the two people. She wasn't so sure that she liked what was going on here.  
  
"Yayoi is withholding information about a Nightbreed that Shido is extremely curious about," Guni informed Riho. "And I think I know why she is doing it too."  
  
"Why?" Riho asked.  
  
"Because she's afraid that Shido will try to go after it not with the intention to kill it, but to become it's victim."  
  
"Mr. Shido would never do that!" Riho shouted with conviction.  
  
"I beg to differ," Yayoi stated and turned steely eyes upon Shido once more.  
  
The vampire in question straightened himself out from the desk and calmly took a seat across from Yayoi.  
  
"Let's hear what you know, Yayoi, and then I will come to a decision about my course of action," he calmly replied.  
  
Yayoi sighed heavily and brushed her long hair behind her shoulders. She then began to tell her friends about a Nightbreed with the capability to recreate long forgotten memories from their hosts' minds. 


	2. Chapter 2

Yayoi explained, "Supposedly, this Nightbreed overtakes it's host's body and recreates memories from the host's mind. It makes the memories come alive for the host and the person relives the memory psychically in every way. The Nightbreed feeds off of the emotions that the memories create. The person is so distraught and overcome with emotion, that they will usually then take their own life and the breed moves on to a new donor."  
  
"How terrible!" Riho exclaimed. "To take advantage of a human beings psyche that way!"  
  
"Yes," Yayoi agreed. "It is a terrible monster, but I believe that our Mr. Shido here will disagree with us."  
  
Shido shook his head. "I am not saying that the breed doesn't need to be stopped. It does, and it will be. But while I am at it, I don't think that it would hurt to have it recreate a few of my own forgotten memories."  
  
"But Shido," Guni cried, "I thought that you said that you didn't care about any long forgotten memories and you were happier living now!"  
  
"That's true," Shido replied. "But I can't help but wonder who I once was and how much of that man still exists in me today. I have so many questions that need to be answered and the one person who can answer them, I refuse to have anything to do with."  
  
He quickly rose from the couch and walked back over to stare morosely out the window once again.  
  
"You can't understand what it is like to not even know your real name," he whispered. "I don't know how or why I became a vampire. Was it done willingly? Or did I fight him? What were my parents like? Did I have a happy childhood? And on and on..." He clenched his fist in frustration.  
  
"Mr. Shido," Riho cried and she moved to go comfort him. Yayoi stopped her with the shake of her head. The room remained quiet for a long drawn out minute. Everyone within waiting tensely to hear what the vampire would do. Would he deliberately let the Nightbreed take control of his body to regain even a few of his long forgotten precious memories? Or would he simply seek the breed out to destroy it.  
  
"We're going after the breed," Shido announced, turning around to face the group of anxious onlookers. "I will let it take my body and then I will defeat it."  
  
  
  
  
  
Low moans, the muffled sound of crying, and then a keening wail of pain.  
  
'We're getting closer,' the vampire thought.  
  
The dark alley did not provide much light, but his vampire senses were in full gear. He could sense the breed was not far away and with the crying getting closer, he knew that they were on the right track. Yayoi's heels splashed through the puddles left in the street and Guni fluttered from underneath his long, lavender hair.  
  
"I don't like this," the fairy predicted in an ominous tone.  
  
"No one asked you," Shido whispered back and quickened his pace. "There it is!"  
  
A crumpled body lay facedown on the wet pavement. A face looked up. It was tear stained and the eyes had a haunted look about them.  
  
"Make the pain stop! Please!" the person begged.  
  
"Get out of that body!" Shido commanded the breed.  
  
Suddenly, the body glowed an eerie bright green color and when the face again reappeared, the eyes shone red as fire.  
  
"I am not through here yet!" the breed hissed.  
  
"Yes, you are!" Shido calmly stated and then he raised his finger to his mouth and bit hard. Red blood flowed and then crackled and gleamed to form a shining sword. Shido raised the sword above his head and charged the Nightbreed. Yayoi drew her pistol out and covered Shido's approach towards the being. The plan was that Shido would draw the breed out of the body that it was inhabiting and then coax it into his own. After a predetermined amount of time had passed, Riho was to bite Shido and drain the breed out of his body and kill it.  
  
Shido rammed his blood sword into the breed's body. Green liquid flowed out from the wound and hissed and crackled. The body fell to the ground in a lifeless heap. But instead of dropping blood onto the puddle of green slime that the Nightbreed had become, Shido instead sliced his wrist and poured some of the breed substance into his open cut.  
  
Yayoi looked on with a growing sense of alarm and discontent. Shido raised his head to look at Yayoi and she watched his eyes change from golden yellow to fire red. Shido swayed on his feet and Guni barely escaped the confines of his hair before he fell to the ground in a dead faint.  
  
"So," Yayoi drawled. "Are you going to help me drag his miserable carcass back to the office or what?" she inquired of Guni. Neither one made a move, only continued to stare down at the vampire's lifeless body and wonder what was going on in his head. Would he find the answers that he had been looking for or would this be the end to his eternity of existence? 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
  
A dainty feminine hand encased in a white lace glove appeared in front of his eyes. Instinctively, he reached for it and enclosed it within his own two hands. Silently, as if in a dream, he watched a figure emerge from the darkness of an enclosed carriage. A young lady stepped down onto the gravel of the driveway and Shido was immediately struck by an overwhelming surge of love for the beauty before him. She was dressed in a blue carriage dress with a chip-straw bonnet placed jauntily over her head. From beneath the bonnet, auburn tendrils of hair peeped out and sweetly framed her oval face.  
  
Just then the young lady looked up at him and he was caught up in the amber- hued essence of her eyes. He saw the sunlight and an image of himself reflected in their depths. Her eyes were vaguely reminiscent of another young lady he knew, he thought briefly. But the thought escaped him as she opened her mouth to speak.  
  
"Thank you for your assistance kind gentleman," she murmured in a husky tone. And she then whispered in an aside to him, "Do you think that you will have any time this weekend for that tete a tete that you have been meaning to have with my uncle?"  
  
Shido smiled brilliantly down into her sweet face.  
  
"Of course, by love. Nothing will give me greater pleasure that to make it official and ask your guardian for your hand in marriage. But remember? You have already promised to spend eternity with me," he teased.  
  
Something in his light words struck a discordant note in his thoughts, but he dismissed it and gently placed his lips to her fingers before releasing her hand and offering his arm for her escort into the great Victorian manor that loomed before them.  
  
"Do you know who any of the other guests will be this weekend, my love?" Shido questioned.  
  
"Well, Lord and Lady Swallow are sure to come as well as the Duke of Grey and his duchess. But the most exciting personage to grace this country house party will be the enigmatic count that has come to London this season."  
  
"Oh, do you mean Count Cain from Transylvania? Shido queried.  
  
"You know him darling?" his companion asked.  
  
"I've bumped into him a few times at my club in London actually. A strange fellow, for sure. He always looks at me so intensely when he speaks. I'm ashamed to admit that he rather unnerves me."  
  
"Oh darling, don't be silly!" she cried. "I think he's charming and I intend to further my acquaintance with him this weekend."  
  
Shido tightened his fingers around the small hand on his sleeve and said in a tight voice, "Just as long as you know who you belong to."  
  
She stopped their approach to the house and turned to face him. Looking up at him with her great, big, trusting brown eyes she said, "I know darling...I knew it from the minute that I saw you that we belonged together. The only one that needed convincing was you as I recall it. I want us to be together forever. Always."  
  
Although Shido was moved by her devoted words, a strange sense of doom pervaded his thoughts. He hurried to reassure himself as well as her.  
  
"We will, by sweet. We will."  
  
And they both turned to face the great house and continue on their path.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Mr. Shido!" Riho cried as she saw Shido's body lying lifeless on the office couch. She rushed in from the doorway and knelt on the ground beside her employer. Riho tenderly lifted one of Shido's hands from his chest and brushed her lips against it. Tears came to her eyes at the thought of her true love being consumed by the nightbreed that had housed itself inside of his body. She hoped and prayed that she had the strength to withdraw the nightbreed from his body and defeat it alone.  
  
"What if he doesn't come back from this?" she worried. "I can't even begin to imagine spending eternity without him. Oh, Mr. Shido!"  
  
Yayoi cleared her throat to make her presence known to the young vampire.  
  
Riho dipped her head and quickly brushed away her tears. She wanted so much to be mature and cool like Yayoi. To not let her face betray any sign of the emotions that constantly churned inside of her. Most especially her unrequited love for Mr. Shido. Riho turned to face Shido's partner.  
  
"How is he Yayoi? How long has he been like this?" she inquired, gesturing towards Shido's comatose body.  
  
"The breed took possession about an hour ago. Then we had to haul him back here and up those office steps. Guni was no help whatsoever, and you were nowhere around," Yayoi complained. "How much do you think Shido weighs anyway? Maybe I should start to cut back on some of his feedings. He could be packing on some pounds."  
  
"Yayoi! This is no time to joke," Guni exclaimed. She hovered in the air between the two women.  
  
"I know," Yayoi stated as she placed a calming hand on Riho's shoulder and lightly squeezed it to give her some reassurance.  
  
"He's going to be fine. He appears to be in some sort of coma. Perhaps this scheme of his is really working and right now he is reliving one of his memories. I just hope that..."  
  
Yayoi was cut off just as that moment by a loud groan followed by a torturous sob which had escaped from Shido's lips.  
  
"NO!!! MY LOVE!" Shido screamed in a frenzied trance. "PLEASE DON'T DIE! I LOVE YOU! PLEASE!!...What about our...eternity?"  
  
Yayoi and Riho rushed over to restrain the thrashing vampire. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
  
Shido and his lovely dancing partner were just returning from the last set of waltzes when he noticed a tall, blonde gentleman enter the room. His tawny colored eyes roved over the assembled crowd as if in search of someone. When the man's eyes found Shido, they appeared to spark with a mysterious light. He then turned to saunter over to where Shido stood.  
  
"Good evening, Count Cain," Shido greeted the man smoothly, although something within Shido was acutely discomfited by the other man's presence.  
  
"Good evening to you too! How pleasant to find a friendly face in this rustic setting," the Count drawled in his heavily accented voice.  
  
"May I introduce you to my fiancée, Cain?"  
  
Cain's gaze dropped from Shido's and spun to the beautiful, young woman standing quietly at Shido's side. Shido could not help but notice the scowl that momentarily darkened the gentleman's countenance when he mentioned his lady love.  
  
"Fiancée?" Cain inquired. "But yes, we have had the pleasure to meet once or twice in London. You are looking ravishing this evening, my dear," he murmured as he raised the slender wrist of the girl to his mouth and placed a chaste kiss upon her hand.  
  
"You are...truly magnificent," he drawled as his eyes again returned to feast themselves upon Shido.  
  
"May I have the pleasure of a dance with your beloved?" Cain requested.  
  
As Shido nodded his assent and the pair moved off, Shido silently mulled over just what it was that he found so disturbing about the foreign count. He did not like the way the flaxen haired man looked at him. When he was complimenting his lady, it appeared that his words were being directed towards him. He idly wondered if the man entertained deviant thoughts.  
  
Just then as Shido looked up to watch the couples move through the patterns of the dance, he caught Cain staring at him. The look that the man gave him could only be described as one of burning desire. A chill ran down Shido's spine as he turned away.  
  
  
  
  
  
A woman's scream awoke him. He tossed his rumpled bedclothes aside and reached for his robe in a blind panic. Shido flew through the darkened hallways of the manor following the distressing cry of a woman. He was shocked to discover the screams coming from the corridor in which his love was staying. He quickly found himself at her opened door.  
  
As he entered, he noticed that the only light in the room came from the fireplace burning low in the grate in the corner. All of the windows in the room were flung wide open with the drapes billowing inside. Shido lit a match and placed the flame to a candle to discover what all of the commotion was about.  
  
A maid was cowering against the wall screaming at the top of her lungs. He grabbed her shoulders tightly and shook her until she quieted down.  
  
"What is going on here?" he demanded.  
  
Her only movement was to raise a trembling finger and point it towards the bed. She then closed her mouth with a gasp and sank to the floor in a dead faint.  
  
Shido turned and walked towards the bed shrouded in sheer lace curtains. He parted the fabric and looked down. The sight that greeted his eyes could only be described as one of a bloodbath.  
  
His beloved lay in her bed face-up in a pool of crimson liquid. Her beautiful brown, doe-like eyes stared sightlessly overhead, seemingly unaware of the long, deep cuts that sliced through her chest, her stomach, and marred the porcelain perfection of her face. A puncture wound on her neck continued to drip drops of magenta onto the pristine whiteness of her bedclothes.  
  
Shido's body began to shake uncontrollably as he let loose a low moan and then sobbed out, "NO!! MY LOVE! PLEASE DON'T DIE!!! I LOVE YOU! PLEASE..." he begged. "What about our...eternity?"  
  
And then everything went black. 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
  
"I believe it's show time," Yayoi stated flatly, turning her gaze from Shido to Riho.  
  
The young vampire in turn tried to hurriedly stash the deep pain of hearing her true love proclaim his devotion to another woman from another time.  
  
'No wonder her never really sees me or will ever view me as anything other than a daughter or comrade,' she thought bitterly. But the gravity of the situation sunk in quickly as Shido's body began to quake and violently spasm out of control. A green glow enveloped his form and when he opened his eyes, they appeared to spit fire.  
  
"Get out of that body!" Yayoi demanded as she leveled her gun at Shido's possessed form.  
  
"Never!" the breed hissed. "Who would have known that vampires could inspire such delicious pain and despair? I am having a feast. You may have him back when he is a shell. For now, I intend to keep this emotional buffet open for my enjoyment."  
  
Shido's body began to hover over the couch and moved to float out of the open window. However, Riho grabbed him from behind and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.  
  
'Here goes,' she thought valiantly as she sunk her fangs into the other vampire's neck. She concentrated on drawing the nightbreed out of Shido's body rather than his blood. The breed was extremely resistant and it took several long, strong pulls on his neck to finally withdraw the venomous breed.  
  
Riho spit the green slime onto the office floor and then pricked her finger with one of her sharp teeth. Drops of glowing blood began to flow from the self-inflicted wound and she flung them at the remains of the nightbreed as she had seen Shido do countless times before. The mixture hissed and fizzled and eventually melted away.  
  
Shido's lifeless body, meanwhile, was being tended to by Yayoi and Guni. They had successfully propped him up against the wall and were trying to revive him. Riho raced over to join the trio and combined her own efforts in rousing the vampire. After several bone rattling shakes and a stinging blow to the face delivered by Yayoi, Shido raised the lids of his eyes and looked out at them with dull, blank, green eyes. He stared sightlessly ahead for a few moments before something inside of him broke and a look of utter despair washed over his handsome features.  
  
He spoke in a pain-drenched voice, "Why should I go on? Why have you brought me back? What is there here for me? My love is dead and gone...and that is where I want to be!"  
  
Riho and Yayoi reeled back from the shock of hearing Shido speak so fatalistically.  
  
"Please make these eternity of endless black nights end!" he cried and once again slipped into the mind and heart-numbing ecstasy of a coma. An effective escape from the battle he did not want to fight or face anymore after discovering the tragic end of his beloved. For now he understood just why and how he had become a vampire. Cain had murdered his true love in her bed so that she would not be an impediment in his possession of Shido. The unendurable pain of his love's demise was overwhelming him and he had sought refuge in a church that night and pleaded with any and all gods to end his torment. Cain had entered upon hearing his plea and had assured him that he had an answer that would last an eternity. He would forget all about this nightmare and survive in the dark and in the light. Cain's answer had worked...until now. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
Shido awoke to find himself enclosed in a pair of warm, bare arms. One delicate hand rubbed his back in smooth circles while the other burrowed through his long, thick, lavender hair to massage his scalp. His head rested on a bosom that was pillowy soft. One of his own hands rested possessively on a plump, bare breast while the other was wrapped around the slender waist of the person he was sharing the bed with. Their two bodies were pressed together tightly and inextricably entangled so that you could not tell where one body began and the other ended. The room around them was darkened, but a rosy glow appeared to surround their bodies and both of their skins shone with pearly luminescence.  
  
Shido sighed and turned his thoughts inward and reflected on his feelings. Although he felt securely safe and protected here inside of this human cocoon, he knew in a part of his mind that he had to leave this harbor soon and go out into the world. He felt as if he wouldn't have the strength inside of him to face these unknown challenges and peril if he had to be separated from this person who held him so lovingly. To be separated from her would be as if an essential part of him would be lost. This essential part being the human part of him.  
  
"I don't want to go," Shido murmured quietly, unaware if he had actually spoken the sentiment aloud or not.  
  
"You have to," a soft, high-pitched feminine voice replied back from overhead. Her breath rustled his hair as she spoke and he felt the vibrations of her voice with his ear pressed tightly against her chest.  
  
"You are so important to the world," she continued. "Do you know how many lives you have saved since you took this righteous path? It is not easy and it is never ending, I know, but it is your calling. You cannot deny or escape your destiny."  
  
Shido instinctively knew that what the voice said was true. He had to go back. He could no longer hang onto the past. He had to meet his future and continue on with the bloody battles that he waged daily with the nightbreeds. But the thought of leaving this lovely figure that brought him such comfort, so much reassurance, and so much love, filled him with dread.  
  
"But I don't want to lose you!" Shido cried and inclined his head to meet the lips of the young lady who was like a balm to his badly bruised soul.  
  
Her lips were softly sweet and responded fervently to his own need. As their mouths moved upon one another, his tongue slid inside the seam of her lips and tangled with her own. He rubbed his tongue against hers and created a heated friction that traveled through every part of his body. Suddenly, Shido experienced an explosion behind his eyes and pictures sprang up unbidden in his thoughts.  
  
In his mind he saw Riho crying at her parents grave...Riho serving up fresh coffee in the office...Riho so worried and hugging him when he emerged from the well which had held him captive for days...Riho lying asleep on his lap, one of his hand moving softly through her hair...Riho looking up at him with her big, brown, doe-like eyes so full of love, trust, and admiration...Riho begging him in the church to turn her into a vampire so that they would never be parted...Riho...Riho...  
  
"Riho!" Shido cried, breaking off the heated kiss that had sparked those images. He opened his eyes and looked down for the first time at the woman he was lying with. His heart filled with a mixture of surprise and overwhelming love.  
  
"I love you," Shido said with heartfelt emotion. The words felt rusty to his own ears, but so right in a way that nothing had ever felt right before. Strange how his heart knew what his mind had been denying for so long.  
  
"I love you too!" Riho replied in a voice strong and sure with the conviction of what she felt.  
  
"I don't want to lose you," Shido lamented, his voice hoarse with pent-up emotion.  
  
"You won't darling. Just open your eyes. Come back to me. I've missed you so! We have eternity to be together." And with that her figure began to slowly dissolve from underneath his body.  
  
"Riho!" Shido cried, reaching for her in vain.  
  
"I'm waiting for you Shido. Remember, I love you...love you...love you..." Her echoed response filled his brain.  
  
"Riho! I love you!" Shido called after her and with a start awoke from his coma.  
  
  
  
"So you finally have the balls to admit it, Shido," Yayoi drawled from the office couch located opposite him. "Not that it will do you any good now though," she warned ominously.  
  
"Yayoi! What do you mean? What's going on? Where's Riho? Where have I been? Answer me!!" he shouted all in a panic as he struggled to sit upright.  
  
"Calm down Shido and I will fill you in," she replied more sedately.  
  
"She's gone!" Guni blurted out while settling in on the coffee table. "Shido, Riho's gone and I don't know if she's ever coming back!"  
  
For the first time since he discovered the mutilated body of his former betrothed, Shido felt hot tears spring to his eyes and his heart break in two. He continued to stare numbly ahead while his friends filled him in on what had been happening while he had been comatose. But in his mind he chanted the same refrain over and over, 'Don't let me be too late God! Please don't let me be too late to let her know that I love her.' 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
Riho sat alone on the hard park bench overlooking the water. The moonlight was drifting over the waves, making the light dance before her eyes. The incredible beauty of the balmy night, with the stars twinkling overhead in the dark sky, moved her deeply.  
  
'This is a night for lovers,' she thought and her heart began to ache anew. For there was no lover for her now, nor would there ever be, since Shido had turned his back on the real world and on herself.  
  
As far as she understood it, Shido had loved another greatly in his other life and had lost her in a cruel twist of fate. Since reliving that tragedy in his mind, he preferred to not go on living, to not continue his battle with the nightbreeds, and to not come back to her.  
  
She vividly recalled Shido's words of the day before. "What is there here for me?" he had asked. "My love is dead and gone..."  
  
It was at that moment that she knew that she had lost. She had lost him: Shido her employer, Shido her father, Shido her comforter, Shido her knight in shining armor, and Shido her one and only true love and companion.  
  
Riho had run out of the office and not looked back when Yayoi and Guni had called after her. She had fled and had not been back since. She didn't know if she ever would or even could go back again.  
  
Tears that she didn't know she had been shedding dripped down her cheeks and onto her lips, stinging them with their salty taste. An image of a tall gentleman with thick, lavender colored hair billowing from behind him and green eyes rose unbidden in her mind. She shook off the memory.  
  
Riho wiped her face and inhaled deeply of the fresh night air. So, what would she do with herself? Sit here and feel sorry for herself? No, she thought. I am no longer some little school girl. I am a strong woman and I am a vampire! Well, she thought bravely, even if Shido had given up fighting the nightbreeds, that didn't mean that she had to. After all, she had an eternity to spend. She wanted to spend it doing something good, and something that was right, and...and...something that would keep the pain in her heart at bay for even a little while.  
  
She jumped up from the bench and walked off into the night with determination in her step. "Beware creatures of the night, I am coming after you!" she warned.  
  
  
  
  
  
Cain stared morosely into the blazing and crackling fire before him. He sighed heavily and readjusted his position in the leather armchair in which he was sprawled. He was restless and he was lonely, he admitted to himself.  
  
It was not fair that his one and only true companion had deserted him. Cain had bided his time and waited for Shido to come crawling back to him, begging for his mercy and forgiveness. When that had not happened, he had searched Shido out and spied on his doings from afar. Once he had seen enough, he had made his presence known and implored Shido to return to him and their former life together. The ungrateful vampire had spurned him and his advances. Damn him! Cain threw the glass he held in his hand into the fire with a vengeance and was pleased to hear the glass shatter and break. Just the way he hoped to break Shido's will.  
  
He jumped up and began to pace the room. Cain considered himself a patient man. After all, he had an eternity in which to win back Shido. However, the young man's antics were trying on Cain's nerves and a small part of him realized that he may in truth never regain his former lover's affections. He raked a trembling hand through his golden hair at the thought and his eyes snapped with fire.  
  
It was all because of HER! That...That young girl! That tramp that Shido had taken into his employ when her parents were killed and then later saved when Cain himself had sliced her chest open. Shido had turned her into a vampire. And come to love her as well, Cain thought bitterly. Cain knew this to be true when he had pulled Shido's innermost emotions out, so that he could empathize with Cain about how it felt when Shido had left him.  
  
Shido would never come back to him as long as that young girl held Shido' heart and stood in the way. Cain smiled wickedly and thought back to a time when another young female had claimed Shido's affections. He had had no problem with dealing with that impediment, he thought as images of long claws splicing into dewy, fresh skin and vermilion stained sheets rose to his mind. It would be a pleasure to hand out such death and destruction again.  
  
Perhaps time worked in circles. When he had removed Shido's beautiful fiancée before, he had turned to Cain. When Cain destroyed the young Riho, Shido would have no where else to go but to him.  
  
Cain let loose a rumbling laugh and set out into the night. "Beware young temptress, I am coming after you!"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Shido anxiously paced in front of the window waiting for the sun to set. He had wanted to set out after Riho immediately, but Yayoi had convinced him that he was way overdue for a feeding and would get nowhere on what little strength he had left. So he had followed her advice and then sent her and Guni out to scour the streets for any signs of Riho. He began to berate himself all over again.  
  
What a fool he had been to not see what had been in front of his very eyes all along. How he longed to hear Riho's cheerful voice singing out to him from the kitchen. To pull her hair free from its ponytail and run his hands through her thick, lustrous, brown hair. To look deep into her soulful eyes and speak what was in his heart. The words that she had been longing to hear. The words that he had been afraid to admit to and say for fear that they would doom him all over again as they had in the past.  
  
Caught up in his reverie of holding Riho's curvaceous body against his own and placing his lips onto her sweet ones, Shido suddenly looked up and out the window again. The horizon was finally glowing in muted shades of pinks and reds. He hastily pulled on his coat and set off down the stairs of the office.  
  
"Hold on, my darling," he thought. "I am coming after you!" 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
  
Riho was beginning to realize that playing the superhero wasn't going to be as easy as she initially thought. First of all, wandering aimlessly around town was not a really productive way in which to locate and combat nightbreeds. She would have preferred to center her attention on a particular area of the city where the breeds tended to congregate. However, she hadn't been involved in the business long enough to know where such locales existed. The best thing to do, she thought, was to have an insider on the police force who could inform her of suspicious events. Precisely what Yayoi did for Shido, she acknowledged to herself. If she truly wanted to get serious about this crime fighting she would have to ask Yayoi for help. That meant returning to the agency and seeing Shido's handsome face and body lying in a self-induced coma because he would rather live in the past than face a future together with her. 'No!' she thought vehemently. I'm bound to run into some trouble sooner or later.  
  
She rounded the corner of the street and heard church bells chime the bewitching hour of midnight. Looking up, she realized where her random steps had led her. They had guided her back to the place where she had died and been reborn. The place where the bond between herself and Shido had become as securely fastened as blood is thicker than water. She dimly recollected begging Shido to turn her so that they would never be parted. She acutely recalled in vivid detail the blood-stained kiss that had solidified their union. Breaking away from the painful memory, she bitterly turned away when she heard a screeching cry for help in the night air. Riho turned back to face the church once more and clenched her fists in determination. Now was her chance to prove to herself that she had not been mistaken in asking for a life eternal.  
  
Riho ran around the gothic building to the darkened alley behind it. There, in the shadows of the dim passageway illuminated only by a single street light, she saw a man holding a woman in a tight embrace. His head was bent down low over hers masking his features.  
  
"Let her go!" Riho demanded of the man.  
  
When he looked up from his prey, Riho felt all of her blood drain right down to her toes. For before her stood Shido's maker and nemesis, Cain, with his eyes shining a fierce golden color like a lion's.  
  
"I'd be glad to," he replied, flinging the woman aside as if she were a rag doll.  
  
"Would you prefer to take her place, little mouse?" he asked Riho, while seductively sidling up to her.  
  
Riho's feet seemed to be planted into the ground below them, for she was incapable of movement at that moment. Cain reached out and caressed her face with one gloved hand.  
  
"Come, my dear," he said. "There is much we need to discuss." With that he withdrew the glove fitted to his other hand and shed his claws from his long fingers. Placing the razor sharp nails to her throat, he added, "I insist."  
  
He turned her around and propelled her body forward into the church which had witnessed her destiny once before.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, Shido, too, had been drawn to the inexplicable confines of the church. After searching for Riho for hours, he had felt the need to take a rest. But he had wanted to go somewhere which contained memories of Riho, so that he at least could be nearer to her in spirit and mind, if not in the flesh. Like the call of the siren's song, his thoughts had guided him to the place where he had played a hand in deciding her fate.  
  
Walking into the stained glass cathedral lit by several strategically placed candles, felt a little like coming home to him. He was in God's House and silently walked up the aisle to stare up at the crucifix that hung upon the wall at the apse of the church. Another being that was made to suffer for the good of others, he thought.  
  
Shido then turned and looked down at the altar steps where he had held Riho's lifeless body in his arms. What a decision he had had to make that night! Let the precious life that glowed so brightly inside her young body slowly ebb out and burn away or pull her back to earth and theoretically chain her to the life that she had yet to live.  
  
He knew then as he did now, what he had always wanted to do. Yet he had tried to talk himself and her out of it. "You will regret it," he had told her. "You will be doomed to endless dark nights," he had warned her, all to no avail. Lord knows he had tried to convince her, yet her mind had been made up, as well as his own. Their fates had been set. She had wanted always to be with him, and God damn him, he selfishly had wanted her magnificent and brilliant light to shine for him and him only for eternity.  
  
The church bells began to chime the midnight hour. Looking around, he realized how appropriate it was that he had made her his own in a church. They had exchanged blood for life-long bonds with each other. A mockery of church-sanctioned marriage vows. A chill ran down his spine as he recalled that his own making had been in a church as well. Peculiar how history so often repeated itself. Shido turned to exit the church to renew his search for Riho when he saw a figure enter.  
  
"Riho!" he cried, joyfully delighted that she too had come to this place where their fates had become aligned together.  
  
He began to move towards her with arms outstretched when he noticed the peculiar expression on her face. It was one of pain and fear. Was she afraid of him now? No, that couldn't be it. He then noticed a shape hidden in the shadows standing directly behind her. As Riho woodenly moved forward, the presence behind her entered the light from the darkness.  
  
"Mr. Shido," Riho whimpered helplessly.  
  
Cain held Riho with one arm wrapped securely around her waist and the other held daggers at her throat.  
  
"Cain..." whispered Shido hoarsely as panic seized his heart and the memory of his first love with her blood-stained sheets and slashed body rose before his eyes.  
  
"NO!" he cried. 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
  
"Ah!" Cain drawled. "The eternal triangle."  
  
"Let her go, Cain!" Shido demanded, clenching his fists in helpless frustration.  
  
"I don't think so," Cain replied. "You see, Little Miss Mouse and I were just going to have a nice, cozy chat. Actually, we were going to be discussing you. Were your ears burning, Shido? Is that how you came to find us here?"  
  
"No, Riho and I share a bond. I sensed that I would find her here. That is why I came."  
  
Shido hadn't realized the truth of his remark until he had actually spoken it aloud. And it was true! He had instinctively known where to find Riho. Their bond existed at many planes and on several different levels.  
  
"A bond that you could not even begin to understand, Cain," Shido taunted.  
  
At his words, Riho's eyes widened in surprise. She hadn't been aware that he was looking for her, let alone even out of his coma. She still had a lot to learn about being a vampire, she admitted to herself. That was if she continued to live, she thought, as Shido's words struck a nerve in Cain and his razor-sharp claws pricked the delicate skin of her neck.  
  
"My precious Shido," he began with pain apparent in his voice, "how you wound me with your words. This bond that you speak of sharing with the brat is one that you and I shared for countless years when once we roamed the nights together. Think back. Don't you remember how truly close we once were?"  
  
Upon Cain's words, Shido envisioned himself and the blonde vampire attending countless parties, dancing with dozens of beautiful women, drinking of their blood, exchanging passionate kisses with crimson stained lips with one another...  
  
"Enough!" he cried. "I know now what you are and what you did to make me like you. It was you! It was you who crept into my fiancée's room and stole her lifeblood as she slept! You who cut and mutilated her body to shreds! You who robbed me of my love! All to get to me! You will pay, Cain! You will pay the ultimate price!"  
  
Raw anger such as he had never known surged through Shido's body, blocking out all conscious thought. The only thing that he wanted at that particular moment was revenge. That was his one and only objective!  
  
But a soft whimper just then escaped Riho's lips and he looked up to meet her troubled gaze. Unshed tears swam in her luminous brown eyes, not for her own perilous predicament, but for him. For the pain and the sorrow that he had had to endure at this creature's hands. He was moved by her incredible selfless spirit and vowed to not let Cain rob him of his second chance for life and love. History would not repeat itself this night, he pledged to himself.  
  
Shido held Riho's steady gaze and made a quick move with his elbow to indicate that she should plan a sudden attack on the vampire. Riho centered her mind and body and focused on how she could upset her captor. Now, she thought, as she suddenly jabbed her elbow back into Cain and quick as lightning slipped from his hold. At the same time, Shido reached out for her and she fell gratefully backwards into his embrace.  
  
Shido grabbed her hand in his own and raised their entwined fingers up to his mouth. He bit hard on both so that glowing blood emitted from both of their wounded fingers. Their blood flowed and ran together to form an enormous shining sword; double the size of one he was capable of creating on his own. With Riho's back against his chest and his arms encircling hers, together they raised the gleaming blood sword over their heads and slashed it across Cain's chest, slicing into his skin, but not quite piercing his heart.  
  
"You are to stay away from me and mine Cain, or so help me God, next time you won't be as lucky," Shido vowed.  
  
Cain raised his shimmering golden gaze to Shido's icy green one and smiled sardonically.  
  
"Until we meet again, my love," Cain called in farewell and vanished into the air.  
  
The shaken couple dropped the heavy blade to the ground, where it disintegrated upon contact. Riho turned around in Shido's arms and looked up at him.  
  
"Mr. Shido, you came back," she said awestruck. "And you saved my life again. Thank you!" She then threw herself into his arms and clung to him. He closed his arms up fast enough around her and lowered his head to rest against her soft hair.  
  
"No, Riho. Thank you for bringing me back," he whispered into her hair. They held each other a moment more and then pulled away.  
  
"We'd better get back to the office and let Yayoi and Guni know that you're okay. They've both been worried sick."  
  
Arm and arm, they walked out of the lit church and into the darkness of the night.  
  
  
  
~To be concluded... 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
  
Riho emerged from the kitchen to find the office deserted. 'Was it something I said?' she thought. She stared blankly at the empty room. Just then, Shido opened the office door and strolled in.  
  
"Where did everyone go?" Riho questioned him aloud.  
  
"I walked Yayoi to her car and Guni has already turned in for the night. So that leaves just the two of us," Shido replied smoothly.  
  
Riho felt a blush begin to stain her cheeks at the thought of being alone with Shido, when his hurtful words of the day before and the stinging pain that accompanied them turned her heart to lead.  
  
"Well, I'd better get going too then! You probably need to get some rest and get readjusted with everything and all," she stammered while moving towards the hallway door. The only problem was that Shido was standing with his back against the door, effectively blocking her exit.  
  
"I thought that we could use this time to talk, Riho," Shido said while reaching behind his back and locking the door. Riho licked her lips nervously.  
  
"I think that I have some things to explain to you so that we can clear up some misunderstandings between us."  
  
Shido began to move towards Riho, while she meanwhile, continued to back away from his advancing figure.  
  
"Mr. Shido," she began, "you don't..."  
  
"Stop calling me that!" he interjected impatiently.  
  
"Calling you what?" Riho inquired confused.  
  
"MR. Shido," he replied. "I believe that we can drop the formality now, don't you? After all, when two people come to care for each other the way that we have, it becomes unnecessary. Don't you agree?"  
  
"Well, yes, I guess so, Mr...., er, um..., Shido. I know that you care for me as a child and a comrade and hopefully as a friend and I can accept that. I am so grateful for all that you've done for me and I hope that we can continue to work together. And I promise to..."  
  
Shido again cut off her words. "Is that ALL you want?" he asked.  
  
He had finally succeeded in backing her up against the wall and Riho had nowhere else to go or look but at him. She was expertly trapped between the wall and Shido. He was a mere hair's breadth away and looking down at her with strangely flickering green eyes shaded by wisps of his lavender hair. Riho thought that he had never looked more beautiful and she longed to reach up to his face and trace his sensual mouth with her fingers.  
  
"What?" she whispered, forgetting his question and instead caught up in his intense gaze. "What did you say?"  
  
"Is that all you want Riho? To be my daughter and comrade and friend? To be my work partner? Is that the kind of relationship that you want with me?"  
  
Riho's mouth went dry. Words were incapable of being uttered at that moment, for her heart seemed to be caught in her throat. Time seemed to stop and the world stood still. She saw her reflection mirrored in his eyes and knew in that instant how he saw her: as a school girl with a crush. She broke away from his gaze and bowed her head, strands of her brown hair hiding her face.  
  
Gentle fingertips reached out and touched her face, caressing her cheek. They then moved down to her chin and forced her head up again to meet Shido's eyes.  
  
"Because that is not what I want from you," he declared. "I want so much more than that. I want you, Riho, to be not only my friend and pupil, but to be my confidante, my comfort, my companion. I want you to be my lover and my love. I want all of this from you Riho because you see; I am desperately, hopelessly, and madly in love with you. Do you think perhaps that you could love me back...just a little?"  
  
He waited patiently for her reply, hope springing up in his heart. His fingers were anxious to touch her, his arms eager to hold her, but not yet. Not until he heard her answer.  
  
"Oh, Mr. Shido!" she cried. "I love you with all of my heart and soul. I always have and I always will, but..."  
  
He placed his fingers against her mouth to silence her words.  
  
"I believe that is enough talking for now, my love," he said. "Because it feels like years since I have last touched you and if I don't make love to you right now, I believe that my immortal life just may very well end."  
  
Riho reached up and wrapped her slender arms around his neck. Shido lifted her delicate frame off the ground and gathered her in a tight embrace. He then placed a smoldering kiss upon her lips and moved off toward the bedroom at a rapid pace.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Much later, when the dawn was just creeping up into the early morning sky, the two lovers lay entwined together. Riho's head rested on Shido's warm, bare chest. His arms encircled her form with one hand gently massaging her scalp through her thick tangle of auburn hair and the other drawing circular patterns on her smooth back. The room was dark except for the rosy glow that emitted from the windows where the horizon flamed with bright colors. Shido realized that this was his dream when he was in his coma, only their positions were reversed.  
  
Riho was the first to break the silence. "Mr. Shido..."she began.  
  
Shido slid his hand down her back and pinched her bottom as punishment for the infraction of using the title before his name. Riho giggled.  
  
"I mean Shido," she stated, and then cautiously continued on with what she had to say. "I know that you once loved someone else and that she died a horrible death. I will understand if you are unable to love me as much as you loved her. I only ask..."  
  
Shido shifted his position and pulled Riho on top of him so that their faces were level and they were eye to eye.  
  
"Riho, it is true that I once loved another. In fact, she resembled you in some ways. You have the same color hair, and your eyes are similar as well. But that is where the comparisons end. You are a much stronger person than she ever was and I did not know her mind, her character, or her heart as well as I know yours. I love YOU, Riho! You are the one that I have chosen to spend my eternity with. Forgive me for being a blind fool and not seeing it before. But returning to my past has made my future clearer to me than it ever was before. And my future is you. I came back for you, Riho, and there is nowhere and no one else that I would rather be with more."  
  
Riho's eyes filled with tears at this declaration of love and one salty drop slipped from her eye to land on Shido's cheek. He rolled her over so that now she was on her back with him on top of her. Shido lowered his head and placed his lips to her mouth. His tongue stroked her lips until they parted and allowed him entrance into the moist sweetness of her mouth.  
  
Meanwhile, his hands set to work on enticing her bare body to open up for him in other ways. His hands cupped her ripe, young breasts and his fingers rubbed her nipples until they stood up firm and ready for him. His mouth slid across her cheek to whisper in her ear. He then raked his teeth along the slender column of her neck until she gasped out. Shido's mouth continued its downward path along her sensual collarbone to the swell of her breasts. Riho arched her back, aching for him to take a nipple into his mouth and suckle it. Shido waited for her to take control and let him know what she wanted. She did just that when she placed her hands on his head and led it towards a yearning breast. As he eagerly suckled, he secretly reveled in the thought that this beautiful, ripe, young body would be his for an eternity, never growing old and withering. But the thought escaped him as more pressing demands claimed his attentions. Riho had grabbed his shaft and placed it at her entrance. He raised his head and looked up at her with questioning eyes.  
  
"Now Shido," she pleaded. "I need you in me now."  
  
"Now and always," was his reply as he dived into her body and began the lover's dance with her. Their two bodies moved in synchrony with each other. His last coherent thought before bliss overtook him was of the paths that both of them had each traveled to find each other.  
  
Shido had swum alone in the deep darkness, until he met her.  
  
Riho had run away alone in the dark sky, until she met him.  
  
Now they would never have to be alone again.  
  
  
  
The End.  
  
Author's Note: Hope you all liked it. I wanted a big payoff there at the end. Hope that it wasn't too much. There were a lot of influences in the story which you might have noticed such as the "Nightwalker" theme song, "Gessekai", and my favorite show "Roswell" with the talk of destiny and the flashes, and the countless romance novels I have read over the years. Please read and review as this is my very first fanfic. Thanks. 


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